Australian Open

Women's final 9:30 p.m. [ESPN2] No Justine Henin, no Williams sisters, no problem. Not when you have Maria Sharapova vs. Ana Ivanovic in the women's final of the Australian Open. Sharapova has dominated every opponent she's faced, including Henin. Ivanovic is a rising star who fought back from a set down to win in the semifinals.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- It was the sun worshipers who fared best yesterday at the Australian Open, where the courtside temperature crawled toward 100 degrees and putting up a cool and composed front became almost as important as holding serve.The tactic worked well for a pair of unseeded American veterans, Aaron Krickstein and Patrick McEnroe, whose stoicism helped them advance to the third round and, in Krickstein's case, led to a significant upset.The 45th-ranked Krickstein admitted he was only pretending to be unaffected by the heat, a professional bluff that eventually tricked 11th-seeded Wayne Ferreira into a 6-3, 6-7 (8-10)

Adrian Quist, three-time Australian Open singles tennis champion, died in Sydney, Australia, at age 78 after a long fight with cancer.Quist won the Australian doubles title eight times with John Bromwich and twice with Don Turnbull.He won the Wimbledon men's doubles title twice and the French Open and U.S. Open doubles titles once each.* Several militant anti-apartheid groups said they would demonstrate this week against the first major tennis tournament in South Africa in four years.The Standard Bank ATP Tour World Doubles Finals, which will begin tomorrow in Johannesburg, features the eight top-ranked doubles teams, led by Australia's John Fitzgerald and Sweden's Anders Jarryd.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- A year ago, on the eve of the Australian Open, the women had no sponsor, no Monica Seles and equal prize money. A year ago, Pete Sampras was a gifted player with little hold on public sympathy, and Andre Agassi still had some hair left on his head.Much has changed in the past 12 months, and when all of the world's marquee players with the exception of Steffi Graf begin slugging it out on the rubberized hard courts at Flinders Park tomorrow, even the Australian Open will be different.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- On a scorcher of a day, Pam Shriver and Elizabeth Smylie first sizzled but then fizzled today in the Australian Open doubles final.In searing 100-degree heat, with the National Tennis Center stadium Rebound Ace court surface heating up to 120 degrees, Shriver and Smylie wilted against the top-seeded pair of Gigi Fernandez and Natalia Zvereva, 6-4, 6-3."The less time you stood still on the court surface, the nicer," said Shriver."This week was terrific, but one match short," she said.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Mary Pierce, the prodigy who needed to cut her parental ties to achieve what a now-banished tennis father had demanded of her, finally attained some Grand Slam peace of mind yesterday by capturing the Australian Open.Pierce, 20, a well-traveled citizen of the world who carries three passports but claims France as her nationality, became the first Frenchwoman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Francoise Durr prevailed at the 1967 French Open.Pierce avenged her 1994 French Open final loss to Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario with a vengeance yesterday beneath the gathering clouds at steamy Flinders Park, seizing her first Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of her top-seeded opponent.

PHILADELPHIA -- The memory of the fortnight makes him smile, even now, nearly three weeks removed and half a world away. Whatever else happens in the tennis career of Patrick McEnroe, nothing can erase that special time down under in January.McEnroe didn't win the Australian Open. He didn't beat any legends or would-be legends. But he got to the semifinals and took Boris Becker four sets, and for one moment at least, he was no longer John McEnroe's little brother, he was a Grand Slam contender.

SYDNEY, Australia -- Pam Shriver is keeping her feet on the ground with a modest list of goals for this season, which begins in earnest tomorrow with the Australian Open.A relaxed and cheerful Shriver felt good talking about hopes for her 16th year on the pro tour during last week's NSW Open Tournament of Champions, a prelude to the year's first Grand Slam."I don't feel any pressure," said Shriver, who will open the Australian Open in Melbourne against Californian Debbie Graham. "If I couldn't play any more tennis, I would feel secure and comfortable with my career.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- One player, the baldish and flighty one, has just returned from a self-styled trip to oblivion that taught him to treat his tennis talent like a brand new car and demonstrate some pride of ownership. The other player, the gritty workaholic whose tennis talent has suddenly gone bankrupt, seems headed toward oblivion.Andre Agassi, ranked 87th in the world but light-years away from the player he was when he won the Australian Open on his maiden voyage here in 1995, pulled off what he termed "a significant upset" last night.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Although a name does not a champion make, the die was cast on this champion's destiny when her parents named their only daughter after Martina Navratilova, the greatest player to emerge from their native Czechoslovakia.Yesterday, on a sun-drenched center court a continent away from her European roots, 16-year-old Martina Hingis emphatically claimed that destiny. And then some.On a hot day in Melbourne, Hingis became the youngest Grand Slam champion in more than a century by shellacking another former prodigy, 22-year-old Mary Pierce, 6-2, 6-2, in the women's final of the Australian Open.